TWiP #223 – F Cancer

This week on TWiP: Photoshop on tablets, haunted ethics, and F cancer.

Host: Frederick Van Johnson with Tristan Hall and Ron Brinkmann.

NEWS & DISCUSSION
Adobe Software Makes Image Stabilization in Post Possible
At their recent MAX conference, Adobe showed off a prototype for a possible new feature in Photoshop that will fix motion blur in photos after-the-fact. In the demo, the software algorithm successfully determined how the camera was moving when the image was captured and figured out how to negate the resulting blur accordingly.

The video in the article isn’t the greatest, but you can tell the image was greatly improved – especially by the huge gasps from the audience! No word on when this feature could be added to Photoshop, but these kinds of demo products do often make it in eventually.

Ron says the real trick is in the analysis of what the camera did while the shutter was open and how much motion blur needs to be corrected. Frederick is a big proponent of getting it right in-camera, saying it’s most important to work on shooting skills rather than post-production skills.

Tristan agrees but also notes that post-production is a huge part of what photographers do these days. Ron sees this more as a tool to be able to fix things in post and says we will see more and more of this kind of fix-it-later software in the future. Frederick will probably play with this technology for some tweaks, but thinks any tool can be abused and is concerned people will overuse its ability.

Revisiting a topic touched on in last week’s episode, Tristan mentioned how excited he was to see Adobe Photoshop Touch being developed for Android tablets because he feels that platform has been lacking a strong photo editing application.

Turn Your Smartphone Into a 350x Microscope For Under $50
Researchers at UC Davis have found a way to make an iPhone’s camera into a 350x microscope for pretty cheap. As the article points out, now you can send people Instagrams of your blood cells! The way this is done is by attaching a 1mm ball lens to the iPhone’s camera lens.

While the lens only gets you 5x magnification, the way it focuses allows detail to be rendered down to 1.5 microns. Granted there is some distortion and sharpness to deal with, but considering you suddenly have 350x magnification at your disposal, it’s pretty remarkable. Check out the link above for a side-by-side comparison of images taken with this iPhone hack and a professional medical microscope to see for yourself.

Ron sees this as a fun hack but thinks this is also a preview of what portable, personal technology can be capable of. Tristan agrees and thinks the only thing cell phone cameras are really missing these days are zoom lenses. Once that happens, he thinks the bottom of the compact camera market will fall out completely.

Haunted House Camera Captures Visitors’ Sheer Terror
Halloween is around the corner which brings us to: A haunted house in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada was smart enough to not only install a camera that snaps photos of visitors at the peak moment of terror, but also to publish the images on their Flickr feed for all to enjoy.

Some of these photos are hilarious and a must-see. And they are not your typical grainy or blurry images from rides that amusement parks try to sell visitors – these were taken with a Nikon D80 DSLR so check them out! Frederick, Ron, and Tristan all love these images.

Ron does wonder if the haunted house got explicit permission from the patrons to capture and broadcast images of them. Tristan says they probably did and just hopes everyone has a good sensor of humor. Frederick says getting scared is the whole point of visiting a haunted house and so it’s all in good fun.

Bone Marrow Search for Amit Gupta
On a more serious note, a friend of TWiP (and Frederick) and founder of the awesome site and photography newsletter – Photojojo, Amit Gupta, was recently diagnosed with leukemia and is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant.

If our listeners, particularly if they are of South Asian decent, want to learn about getting tested to see if they might be a match, please read Amit’s blog post for more details. Getting tested is fast, easy, and could literally save his life. Frederick will be interviewing Amit in the next few weeks to talk about Photojojo and his fight against leukemia.

Ron urges everyone to get tested as potential donors by requesting a kit online and points out that bone marrow donation is not as convoluted or painful as it used to be years ago so there’s really no excuse for not helping out. Tristan says the Sunflower Fund manages the bone registry in South Africa and he has been involved in efforts to raise awareness there.

Frederick really wants to see the TWiP listeners step up to try to help Amit!!! Here’s a quick video interview Frederick did with Amit a few years ago.

LISTENER QUESTIONS
Time to answer questions that have come in from our audience on our Facebook group, via Twitter hashtag #TWiPQuestions, or our Forums page.

Question 1: Michele W., who shoots mostly in Aperture or Shutter Priority, wants to know if she is less “hardcore” than the photographers who shoot in full Manual mode. Ron says a camera is a tool and it doesn’t matter what mode you shoot in and people who tell you otherwise are full of themselves.

Tristan also thinks it’s a load of hogwash, saying you don’t want to miss a killer shot because you were too stubborn to use some of the camera’s semi-automatic modes. Frederick pulled up this YouTube video to remind us to be confident enough to turn off our targeting computer, use the Force, and still blow up the Death Star.

Question 2: Listener “Pilger” wonders if only pros should send their cameras in to get re-calibrated and checked or should serious amateurs too. How often should amateurs do this, if at all? Only when there seems to be a problem with it? Ron says only when a problem starts to creep up – cameras are not like a car that needs regular, scheduled oil changes.

Frederick agrees to send it in when something seems to stop working like it should, but if you travel a lot or put the camera through its paces because of your profession, then you have to send in the camera more frequently. Tristan thinks cameras today are built to take a beating more than they used to and that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” but usually sends his gear in before he takes it into extreme conditions.

Also, remember that if you are a pro you will probably enroll in the professional services offered by Canon or Nikon anyway and that offers comprehensive check-ups free or at little cost.

Question 3: Roger asks “During which specific occasions do you know it’s time to break the ‘Rule of Thirds’? And how do you improve your composition skills in general?” Ron and Frederick say it’s a guideline of what looks visually pleasing in a photo, not a steadfast rule.

You just have to decide what kinds of images you like to create and what kinds of things people like about your photos and take it from there. Tristan totally agrees that you should have an understanding of the guidelines but you shouldn’t feel confined by them.

PICKS OF THE WEEK
Tristan – The new Sony NEX-7 with the 24mm f/1.8 Zeiss lens – the “mind-blowing” camera he has completely fallen in love with. Tristan says this will become the “poor man’s Leica” in the future.

Ron – Artisan HD for printing photos on photopaper, plexiglass, canvas, and more. Here is what Ron had printed with them recently and he was super pleased with the result.

Frederick – Pay With a Tweet – gives others the opportunity to buy stuff from you by tweeting. Might come in handy for photographers.

WRAP UP
Follow us on twitter.com/ThisWeekInPhoto. Join the Flickr critique group. You can also join our Facebook group and find us on Google Plus

Tristan Hall – twitter.com/photocomment, the Photocomment Facebook page or photocomment.net as well as Alpha Tutorials.

Ron Brinkmann – www.digitalcomposting.com or twitter.com/ronbrinkmann or on Google Plus

Frederick Van Johnson – www.frederickvan.com or twitter.com/frederickvan or Google Plus

CREDITS